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Quick HitSteven Ross JohnsonWednesday November 16th, 2011, 3:13pm

New EPA Rules Target Coal Plant Emissions

A coalition of environmental groups Tuesday rebuked the recent
efforts of some Congressional lawmakers to roll back plans to implement
more stringent federal clean air rules on power plants, contending the
move would significantly impact public health within the Chicago area.

At
the center of the debate have been two newly-proposed Environmental
Protection Agency Clean Air Act rules – the Cross-State Air Pollution
Rule (CSAPR) and the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for power plants –
intended to reduce the amount of pollutants emitted by facilities such
as the Fisk and Crawford coal-fired power plants, located on the Chicago’s
Southwest Side.

Last week, Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul
introduced a resolution that would have blocked the implementation of
CSAPR, citing the increased regulation would cause massive job loss and
raise electricity rates. The motion was defeated by a 56-41 vote.

But
as Natural Resource Defense Council Clean Air Director and Senior
Attorney John Walke argued, such claims were without merit and are merely
being used to justify what he characterized as “unprecedented attacks”
being waged on clean air safeguards by Congressional Republicans.

“There have been well over 170 anti-environmental, anti-public health
votes in the House of Representatives alone during this Congressional
year,” he said. “And to a startling degree, those attacks have focused on
the Clean Air Act.”

Walke cited a recent Washington article stating
government regulation had a minimal impact on job loss, making up less
than 1 percent of layoffs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“So we think this ‘job-killing regulation’, as a line of argument, is
flatly false,” he said.

Walke also contested the notion the new
regulation would cause a dramatic rise in consumer energy prices, saying
the impact would be similar to normal market factors.

“EPA is
projecting very modest electricity rate impacts as a result of its rules
that fall within normal historic fluctuations,” he said. “And as any of
us know, our electricity bills often fluctuate from winter to winter
based on fuel price.”

A 2010 study by the
nonprofit, Clean Air Task Force found pollution from the two plants was
linked to more than 700 asthma attacks and as many as 42 premature
deaths annually.

According to the EPA’s web site, CSAPR is expected
to help significantly improve air quality among the 27 states required to follow
the new standards, estimating by 2014 it could save Illinois as much as
$12 billion by avoiding related health care costs.

“We see
patients from in and around the neighborhood,” said EPA Midwest Region
Consultant Dr. Peter Orris, who also serves as a professor and chief of
service for Occupational and Environment Medicine at the University of
Illinois at Chicago Medical Center. “We see an elevated asthma rate; we
see periodic exacerbations and pediatric emergency-room visits relating
to atmospheric changes that cause the releases from the plants to settle
locally in higher amounts than usual.”

Both the Fisk and Crawford
plants are owned by Chicago-based Midwest Generation LLC, and have been
exempt from complying with the Act’s emission standards because both
were up and running long before the establishment of the Clean Air Act
in 1970. The company has also vehemently denied claims pollution
emitted from its plants has led to health problems.

For its part,
Midwest Generation spokeswoman Susan Olavarria said most of the work in
getting both plants in compliance with the new rules has already been
completed.

“Basically, Midwest Generation is already set to
comply with this rule in 2012,” she said. “And that’s based on work
completed and planned under the Illinois EPA agreement that we did with
the Illinois EPA back in 2006.”

Under an agreement with the state,
Midwest Generation must close or retrofit the Fisk facility to comply
with emission standards by 2015, and had until 2018 to make the
necessary improvements to Crawford.

According to the company’s web
site, Midwest has invested $200 million in pollution controls at Fisk
and Crawford since acquiring them in 1999, resulting in a 90 percent
reduction in mercury emissions. At the same time, the company stated it
has been able to cut nitrogen oxide levels by 60 percent, and decrease
the amount of sulfur dioxide emissions by 30 percent.

The deadline
for power companies to be in compliance with the Cross-State Air
Pollution Rule is January 1, 2012. Finalization of the Mercury and Air
Toxics Standards are expected to be completed by the end of December.